PIRAT Q/A

Q: I noticed that this version of the Pesticide Inert Risk Assessment Tool
(PIRAT) is a Beta-version. How should I send feedback?

A: You are correct that this version of PIRAT is a beta or test version, and
it is scheduled for a formal peer review in 2004. We encourage you to please
send any comments you may have on this tool to:

A: Pesticide products contain both "active" and "inert"
ingredients. The terms "active ingredient" and "inert ingredient"
have been defined by Federal law, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and
Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), since 1947. An active ingredient is one that prevents,
destroys, repels or mitigates a pest, or is a plant regulator, defoliant,
desiccant or nitrogen stabilizer. By law, the active ingredient must be identified
by name on the label together with its percentage by weight. An inert ingredient
is simply any ingredient in the product that is not intended to affect a target
pest. For example, isopropyl alcohol may be an active ingredient and antimicrobial
pesticide in some products; however, in other products, it is used as a solvent
and may be considered an inert ingredient. The law does not require inert
ingredients to be identified by name and percentage on the label, but the
total percentage of such ingredients must be declared. To learn more about
pesticide inert ingredients please go to the following link:

A: PIRAT contains data on inert ingredients and a stand alone inert ingredient
weight fraction database is also available for download from this site. In
PIRAT, data are sorted according to formulation type and functional use category,
and statistical analyses were conducted to generate distributions of weight
fraction values for various categories. By contract the weight fractions database,
an Excel database file, has this data in its raw form for users to consider.